Te Anau

Why Te Anau is worth the trip

Most people see Milford Sound as a day trip from Queenstown. It can be done — but it is a twelve-hour day with something like eight hours of it in a vehicle, and the fiord is visited in the middle of the day, which is when every coach in Southland is there and when the light is at its flattest.

The Department of Conservation's own advice is to base yourself here instead, and the arithmetic behind that is simple. From Te Anau, Milford is 120 kilometres. DOC puts the return trip at 240 kilometres and calls it an eight-hour day with stops and a cruise — which is a real day out, but a manageable one, and it starts and ends somewhere quiet.

The second reason is that the road is the attraction. The Milford Road climbs from beech forest through the Eglinton Valley, past mirror lakes and the Divide, through a tunnel bored straight through a mountain, and drops down a hairpin descent into the fiord. Driving it from Queenstown, you arrive at the good part four hours in and already tired. Driving it from Te Anau, you arrive at the good part before you have finished your coffee.

And the third is Doubtful Sound, which almost nobody manages from Queenstown at all. It is larger, deeper and far quieter than Milford, and reaching it involves a boat across Lake Manapouri and a coach over a mountain pass before you even see the water. That is a full day from twenty-one kilometres away and an impossibility from further off.

Then there is the town itself, which is genuinely pleasant and makes no fuss: a long lakefront, a view across to mountains with no road behind them, and three Great Walks within reach.

Understanding Te Anau: the areas that matter

Four things to place, and they radiate from one small town. The lakefront is where you stay; the Milford Road runs north; Manapouri and Doubtful Sound lie south; and the Great Walks begin at the water's edge and disappear into country with no roads in it at all.

• The town and the lakefront

  A compact grid a street back from the water, with a long lakeside path, the DOC visitor centre, and a view west to mountains that have nothing behind them. Quiet in the evening in a way Queenstown has forgotten how to be.

  Best for

  Sleeping, eating, and the walk along the shore at dusk

  As a base

  Where you stay. Everything else here begins from it

  Reason to add

  The DOC visitor centre, which is where trip planning actually happens

• The Milford Road, north

  State Highway 94, 120 km to the fiord, and one of the great drives. The Eglinton Valley, the Mirror Lakes, the Divide, the Homer Tunnel and the descent. No fuel anywhere along it.

  Best for

  The drive as much as the destination. Allow the whole day

  As a base

  DOC campsites between Te Anau and the Divide; no towns

  Reason to add

  You cannot see Milford without it, and it deserves the stops

• Manapouri and Doubtful Sound, south

  Twenty-one kilometres to a small settlement on another lake, and the departure point for Doubtful Sound — reached by boat across Lake Manapouri and then by road over Wilmot Pass.

  Best for

  The quieter, larger, wilder fiord, and far fewer people

  As a base

  Possible, but Te Anau has the services

  Reason to add

  A full day, and the one most visitors to Fiordland never make

• The Great Walks

  The Kepler Track is a four-day loop that starts near the town. The Milford Track begins with a boat up the lake from Te Anau Downs. The Routeburn ends at the Divide, on the Milford Road.

  Best for

  Multi-day walking in country with no other access

  As a base

  Huts must be booked, often many months ahead

  Reason to add

  Day sections of the Kepler are walkable without booking anything

Start planning: four decisions

1. Whether to base here at all. The alternative is day-tripping Milford from Queenstown, which is about twelve hours with eight of them travelling. DOC's advice is to stay in Te Anau, and the reason is not comfort but timing: from here you can be at the fiord before the coaches or after them. See the South Island itinerary. For which part of town to sleep in, see where to stay in Te Anau.
2. One fiord or two. Milford is the famous one and the easier day. Doubtful is bigger, quieter, and a longer and dearer expedition via Manapouri. Two fiords means two full days and two nights minimum, and most people who do both say Doubtful was the one they remember. See what New Zealand costs.
3. Whether you are walking. The Kepler, Milford and Routeburn all run from here, and their huts book out months in advance — for the Milford Track, often the day bookings open. If a Great Walk is the point of the trip, that booking decides your dates, not the other way round. Day walks need no booking at all.
4. Which season. Summer is long, busy and warm. Winter is quiet, and the Milford Road becomes a more serious drive — an avalanche-risk no-stopping zone operates May to September and chains may be required. See the best time to visit New Zealand.

Places you don't want to miss

Two of these are fiords and take a day each. The rest are within half an hour of the lakefront, and one of them is under it.

Milford Sound / Piopiotahi

120 km north on one of the great drives, and a fiord with cliffs going straight into deep water. DOC calls the return trip an eight-hour day. Go early or late — the middle of the day belongs to the coaches.

Doubtful Sound

Bigger, deeper and far emptier than Milford, and a proper expedition: a boat across Lake Manapouri, then a coach over Wilmot Pass, then the fiord. A full day and one of the more expensive in the country. Most people who do both prefer it.

Te Ana-au glowworm caves

Across the lake by boat, then into a limestone cave system and onto a punt, drifting in the dark under a ceiling of glowworms. Daily guided tours, a couple of hours, and the best evening in town by a distance.

The Kepler Track

A four-day Great Walk that starts near the town and comes back to it — unusually, a loop. The huts book out far ahead, but the lakeside and Control Gates sections make excellent half-days with nothing booked.

The Milford Road

Not the drive to Milford but the reason to leave early. The Eglinton's tussock flats and mirror lakes in the first hour, then Lake Gunn, Key Summit and the Chasm — DOC says 2 hours without stopping, and 4 is the honest figure.

Lake Te Anau

The largest lake in the South Island, and the only place in New Zealand with features actually named fiord — three of them, freshwater, reaching west. Walk the lakefront at dusk and look at a shore with no road on it at all.

Where to eat in Te Anau

Te Anau is a small town and it eats early. Almost everything is in the centre, a few minutes’ walk from the motels. The kitchens we checked stop serving between eight and half past eight, so after a long day at Milford Sound, go straight to dinner.

Fiordland’s own tastes are crayfish from the fiords, wild venison and blue cod. Southern Discoveries, which runs cruises on Milford Sound, names all three. We have not eaten in Te Anau, so the table says what each place is and when it opens, not how it tastes.

Other places to find for yourself. Te Anau has more places to eat than these five, a well-known pie shop among them. We could not confirm their details from their own websites, so we have not named them. The town centre is small enough to walk in a few minutes, so look at the menus before you choose. In Manapouri we could not confirm anywhere to eat: ask your host, or plan to drive back to Te Anau. The town has a supermarket if you are cooking for yourself.

For where to sleep, see where to stay in Te Anau.

Getting there and around

Te Anau is reached on State Highway 94 from the east, most commonly from Queenstown. From the town, two roads go into Fiordland and neither goes through it: SH94 north-west to Milford Sound, and the road south to Manapouri for the Doubtful Sound crossing.

Four things about the Milford Road that the distance does not tell you. There is no fuel between Te Anau and Milford Sound, so fill up before leaving. Mobile coverage is limited outside Te Anau. In winter, from May to September, a restricted no-stopping zone operates between the Hollyford Road junction and The Chasm because of avalanche risk, and snow chains can be hired in Te Anau — learn to fit them before you set off, not on a verge in the sleet.

And one piece of advice that contradicts everything else you will read. In winter, DOC recommends leaving later — from 9am onwards — rather than at first light, because the road wants daylight, warmth and avalanche assessment before it is at its best. In summer the opposite is true and early is better. The season decides, not the habit.

A few myths (and realities)